Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Reufle - Sobin - Donnelly - Zapruder - Armantrout - Freelance Whales

Bookshelf

There are a lot of new books just out, or coming out, this fall.

I’m still reading and enjoying Mary Ruefle’s Selected Poems. I’m just about done with it. My finishing it has been complicated by the recent arrival of Gustaf Sobin’s Collected Poems, which I’ve been waiting for ever since I first heard that Talisman would be putting it out, which was a couple years ago. The Ruefle and the Sobin are book excellent books, but they shouldn’t be read together. They just simply don’t mix well.

When I finally wade my way through that dust up, I also have Timothy Donnelly’s The Cloud Corporation and Michael Earl Craig’s Thin Kimono to read, and I’ve gotten word that Matthew Zapruder’s Come on All You Ghosts is on its way. I read section one recently and it looks like he's set himself a great task with this book. I'm really looking forward to it, though I'm having to get over the envy of his ability to name drop Neil Young (on the first page, no less!). I've been trying to do that for years and I just can't do it. I'll keep at it and keep you posted.

I’ve also just heard that Rae Armantrout’s new book, Money Shot, will be out in early 2011 in time for AWP where she’ll be reading. That’s a big reason to go to AWP right there.

Soundtrack

New Find! I recently stumbled across the band Freelance Whales who sound at times eerily like The Postal Service, or perhaps the younger siblings of Ben Gibbard, full of the slowly waning innocence that one can carry with oneself into the "no longer quite so innocent" years. I’m quite taken with them (“Ghosting” below is one of my favorite cuts from the album, stick with it. The change at 3:10 is worth the wait.)

Freelance Whales
Ghosting

And to prove that they’re just as charming in person:

Freelance Whales at At the Tiny SXSW
Ghosting

And if even that doesn’t sell you, here they are in their native habitat: